Donald Goldmacher, Producer/Director, is a longtime filmmaker, labor advocate, activist, and community psychiatrist with decades of experience observing, documenting and participating in social change. His first film, “Do No Harm,” exposed the controversial marketing and research practices of the pharmaceutical industry. His most recent feature documentary,Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House, about two lesbian activists in New York City, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, won over 20 festival awards, and aired on HBO and television stations around the world. In 2004, Donald produced “One Vote,” a 6 minute non-partisan video encouraging single, unregistered women to vote, for which he created a then innovative internet outreach strategy for distribution to millions of women, through a wide range of voter registration, women's, and public health organizations, including Planned Parenthood.

Frances Causey, Director/Producer, a seasoned investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, has emerged as a citizen-activist, fusing her media skills with a commitment to contribute to the restoration of people-based democracy in the United States. During her 14-year career with CNN, Frances moved up the ranks to become producer, and was a senior member of a team honored with News and Documentary Emmys for team coverage of both the Olympic Park and Oklahoma City bombings in 1995 and 1996. Frances has produced several documentary films including the award-winning The Wendell Scott Story. Frances was recently honored with the Women's International Film and Television Jury Award for her work on HEIST. Frances is a member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit Arizona Center for Investigative Journalism and a blogger for Huffington Post.

Thom Hartmann is the nation's #1 progressive radio talk show host (also simulcast as TV in 40 million homes by Dish Network/Free Speech TV), and the New York Times bestselling, 4-times project Censored winning author of 22 books in print in 17 languages on 5 continents. Last year, Talkers Magazine name Thom Hartmann as the 8th most important talk show host in America (10th the two previous years), and for all three years the #1 most important progressive host, in their "Heavy Hundred" ranking. Thom has spent much of his life working with and for the international Salem relief organization (www.saleminternational.org) and he and his wife Louise founded a community for abused children in New Hampshire and a school for learning disabled and ADHD kids (www.hunterschool.org). As an entrepreneur, he's also founded several successful businesses which still are operating, and lived and worked with his wife, Louise, and their three children on several continents.

Earl Katz,President of Public Interest Pictures, is an activist/movie producer. He's led several national and international peace, social justice, and environmental campaigns, many under the aegis of Fellowship of Reconciliation. He is Executive Producer of HEIST (2011) and Executive Producer of the feature film,"Legacy of Secrecy" starring Leonardo DiCaprio for Warner Brothers scheduled for release in 2013. In 2007 he received an Emmy Award (C) nomination as Executive Producer of"Hacking Democracy" for HBO. Since 1970, his award-winning documentaries have been an adjunct to his activism. Katz was Executive Producer of "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election" with Danny Glover (Sundance Channel 2002), "Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties" (Sundance Channel 2004), and "Broadcast Blues" 2009. He was Executive Producer of several earlier documentaries including: "El Barco de la Paz - The Peace Ship to Nicaragua" , "The CIA & World Peace","Lanzo Del Vasto: Warrior For Peace" and "One Earth." He was the fundraiser for "Winter Soldier", a documentary film for Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Cannes Film Festival 1972). All of Earl's documentaries have been used as fundraising and organizing tools to benefit grassroots NGO organizations. In 1982, Katz initiated the video production of HBO's "Night of at Least a Dozen Stars - I Love Liberals," the first non-profit benefit aired on HBO. In 1984, his proposal won a $20 million grant from the National Park Service for the museums built at Liberty and Ellis Islands. Earl serves on numerous boards.

Sally Holst, Executive Producer, is a gifted photographer whose work has received widespread acclaim, appearing in selected exhibitions, galleries and private collections across the United States. Sally and HEIST Co-Director Frances Causey have collaborated on previous film projects including their immigration documentary Papers, please which triggered the idea for HEIST.

Hollis Rich, Writer, has a 25 year career as a television writer and producer that spans both half-hour comedy and hour drama, including "Doogie Howser, MD," "Grace Under Fire," "Picket Fences" and "Party of Five." Hollis co-created and executive-produced ABC Family's "State of Grace" with colleague Brenda Lilly. The critically acclaimed dramedy featured Mae Whitman, Alia Shawkat and Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand as the series' off-screen narrator and earned Hollis four Jewish Image Awards and two Humanitas nominations for its humorous, authentic depiction of two girls of different faiths growing up in the 1960's South.

Maureen Gosling, Director/Producer/Editor, has been a filmmaker and editor for forty years and is best known for her twenty-year collaboration with director Les Blank on more than two-dozen widely acclaimed documentaries. Their best-known film is the classic Burden of Dreams, on the perils of German director Werner Herzog filming his Fitzcarraldo in the Peruvian Amazon. The feature length documentary won a British Academy Award, among others. More recently, she directed and produced Blossoms of Fire, a feature-length documentary about the entrepreneurial Isthmus Zapotec women of southern Oaxaca, Mexico. The film was broadcast on HBO Latino, Spanish TVE, Swedish Television, and Venezuelan Television. In 2006, Gosling collaborated with Series Producer/Program Director Jed Riffe, co-writing and editing California’s “Lost” Tribes, Part 1 of the four-part nationwide PBS series, California and the American Dream. She edited the recent Smokin’ Fish by Luke Griswold-Tergis and for such directors as Tom Weidlinger (Heart of the Congo), Ashley James (Bomba: Dancing the Drum) and Abby Ginzberg (Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Harvest of Justice). In July of 2011, Gosling’s work was honored, along with Les Blank’s, with a two-week retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in NY.

Rogelio Garcia,Director of Photography and Editor, brings a wealth of experience and creativity to the project. As a senior videographer for both KUAT and KVOA in Tucson for ten years, Rogelio won numerous awards including 9 Associated Press Awards for Videography and Editing and one Emmy nomination in 2002. Rogelio has also worked on three feature films and in 2007 he worked as Cinematographer for the short film, “The Runners” which was screened at the Lone Star International Film Festival and the Santa Fe Film Festival. Rogelio served as Director of Photography for the Bravo reality series “Show Dog Moms & Dads” in 2005. Rogelio is a Broadcast Television Production Journalism Instructor at the University of Arizona.

Tara Marchant,Associate Producer, is defining herself, like many others, in the emerging narrative – a localized Green economy. Recently selected to lead the Oakland Emerald Cities Collaborative as its Director, Tara is working across a host of stakeholder organizations (public, labor, community and industry and workforce development) to bring a collective effort to retrofit our urban core. In doing so, she hopes to create high paying jobs, rebuild our democracy, reduce energy use, and direct investments to our local communities.
As the creator and Program Manager of the Green Assets Program at the Greenlining Institute, she worked with advocates and elected officials to include communities of color and low-income communities in California’s commitment to going green. She was the lead for the Greenlining Institute’s co-sponsorship of the Community Benefits Fund (AB1405) – and has presented throughout the state of CA on climate policy, energy efficiency, cap and trade, and localized solutions that bring economic and social equity. In addition, she worked with scores of advocates on the No on Prop 23 campaign, defeating Texas oil companies in their effort to repeal AB32 and California’s leadership in the climate policy debate.

Jennifer Schmidt, Associate Producer, has extensive experience in the film business. Born and raised in Los Angeles, her first position was at art-house distributor Strand Releasing, which was followed by several years in commercial and film production on such indie features as “Chuck and Buck.” In graduate school at UCLA she ran a prominent film series, which parlayed into programming positions with the California Film Institute in the Bay Area. Now a resident of San Francisco, Jennifer has also worked at Active Voice and Katahdin productions on film-based outreach and social action campaigns. Most recently, she associate produced “The Power Of Two,” a feature documentary about cystic fibrosis and organ donation which premiered at IDA’s DocuWeeks and is screening in festivals internationally.

Scout Wise , Assistant to the Producer and Social Media Director, studied Dramatic Writing at New York University and received a BFA in film from the University of Colorado at Denver. Her short comedic film, A Stan Needs a Maid has screened at the Starz Denver International Film Festival and The Denver Silent Film Festival. However, her true passion is documentary as seen in her short doc Roma in the Czech Republic-- highlighting the plight of marginalized Roma people. In the past Scout has donated her time to documentaries such as The Golden Hour-- a feature documentary about roadside fatalities in India-- and plans to give much more time to documentary film in the future. Currently Scout provides key support for HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? and loves every minute of it.

Jed Riffe, Consulting Producer, is an award-winning independent filmmaker who has been producing prime time, national and international programming for theatrical release and public television since 1992. Most recently he served as series producer on "California and the American Dream," an independently produced four-hour, nationally broadcast PBS series. Riffe's feature length, documentary film "Waiting to Inhale: Marijuana, Medicine and the Law" has been screened and broadcast over 145 times on four continents garnering five "Best Documentary" awards including a CINE Golden Eagle. Riffe is currently completing "Germ Wars," a documentary on food safety, bacteria and the immune system. Over the last 20 years, Riffe has produced and directed a number of acclaimed nationally broadcast documentaries and news programs including: "California's 'Lost' Tribes," "Ripe for Change," "Ishi, the Last Yahi," "Who Owns the Past?" and "The Kennewick Man" among others. Riffe's films have won 26 major awards. He is honored to be both a 2009 Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow and a Gerbode Fellow.

David Raiklen,Composer, began studying keyboard and composing at age 5. He wrote, directed and scored his first film at age 9. David studied composition at USC and Cal Arts. Among his mentors are John Williams and Mel Powel. He has worked for Fox, Sony, Disney, Sprint, Mattel, Warner Bros. and PBS. He's scored 16 feature films, and won multiple awards including a 2004 American Music Center Grant, three Telly Awards and the 2009 Park City Festival Audience Choice Award and Gold Medal. Worth made the round of 15 for Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Matthew Baldwin,Graphics Artist, has been working with design, animation and film production for the past 12 years. Starting his career as an illustrator, he studied for an MA in Animation at the Royal College of Art in London and then moved on to live action film production, a move which took him to Mexico city for 2 years where he co-founded Humanitarian Productions SC. While in Mexico he directed and worked on productions specifically commissioned by the Humanitarian Sector. He relocated to the Bay Area in 2008, to be with his family, where he has been focusing on editing and motion graphic design - working on both corporate films and independent feature productions. His recent clients have included the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Google, Schwab, the Bay Area Rapid Transit and Cisco. His feature credits have included "The Most Dangerous Man in America - Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers' and 'Bricks and Straw - the triumph and tragedy of Booker T Washington."

Jeff Palmer, Community Outreach Associate, was born and raised near Seattle, WA. He relocated to the Bay Area in 2006 and worked in special education before completing a degree in cinema production at San Francisco State University. He now works with Connecting the Dots Productions, formed by Frances Causey and Donald Goldmacher.

Non-Profit Fiscal Sponsor:
The project "HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream" is a fiscally-sponsored project of Iris Arts and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which will receive and administer all funding. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Iris Arts is dedicated to supporting the digital media components of this project to enhance its production and outreach. Iris Arts and Education Group focuses on creating and support projects which have socially and cultural relevance.